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Admissions

For information regarding admissions, please contact the school in the first instance on 01327 350284.

Please be aware that the school is over subscribed and that as a converter academy, manages its own admissions. We do make use of a waiting list and when a place becomes available, this is allocated in line with our admissions criteria.

Our Admission Policy & Criteria Years 7 - 13

Please click here for information on how to apply online for your child's school place in Northamptonshire.

Over Subscription

Please be aware that the school uses a geographical information system via Ordnance Survey to establish the straight line distance from the house where the student lives to the front gate of the school when applying the distance tiebreaker criterion.

Appeals

When parents request a place for their child at Sponne, the following procedure is adopted:

when there is a space (that is, below the admission number) in that particular year group, the place will be offered;

when there is no space in the particular year group, parents might request that the child's name is placed on our waiting list. When a place then becomes available, the admission criteria are used to allocate that place from the waiting list;

when there is no space in the particular year group, parents might decide to appeal against the school's decision to not offer a place. Further details regarding appeals can be found by contacting the school.

Transitions

Admissions to year 7 in September 2018-2019

At Sponne School we appreciate that the move from primary to secondary school can be daunting for children and parents which is why we have an established transition process to make the experience as seamless as possible.

Sponne School is a converter Academy and will admit 232 students in Year 7. Parents will need to complete a Common Application Form and submit it to the Local Authority by 5pm on Tuesday 31st October 2017.

As an Academy within a Multi Academy Trust, the Tove Learning Trust control admissions to Sponne School. All students whose statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) or Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan names the school as appropriate provision will be admitted.

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Admissions Criteria

All students whose statement of special educational needs (SEN) or Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan names the school as appropriate provision will be admitted. If the school becomes over subscribed then the following criteria are used to determine the allocation of places:

Children in public care (looked after children) or children who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption,residence/child arrangements order, or special guardianship order.

Students who will have an older brother or sister continuing at Sponne School during the year of application of the younger child and who live at the same address.*

Students attending the designated contributory primary schools (i.e.Blakesley, Greens Norton, Nicholas Hawksmoor, Silverstone, Tiffield, Towcester CE, Whittlebury) and continuing in attendance until the final offer of places is made.

Children of current staff working at the school where the member of staff has been employed at the school for at least two years at the time at which the application for admission is made and/or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable shortage.

*If the admission number is exceeded within this criterion priority will be given to those who live furthest from the nearest alternative school. If the admission number is exceeded within any other criterion priority will be given to those who live closest to the school.

Other students will be allocated any further places that remain once the other criteria have been satisfied upto the published admission number using a distance tiebreaker. Distances will be measured in a straight line from the door of the students home address to the main school gate using postcodes and house numbers. A geographical information system via Ordinance Survey is used to establish the straight line distance and priority is given to those who live closest to the school.

Children from service personnel or crown servant families will be allocated a place according to the over subscription criteria in advance of the family arriving in the area providing their application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date and a postal address.

Appeals

The Governors have an appeals procedure for parents who wish to object about the allocation of a secondary school place for their child. Full details relating to transfer between mainstream schools are contained in the booklet ‘Schools in Northamptonshire, 2018 - 2019, A Guide for Parents’. A copy is available for inspection at the school or may be obtained direct from Northamptonshire County Council.

Transition From Primary School to Sponne

Sponne’s transition process begins with students in our local feeder schools receiving an invite to our New Intake Evening at 6:30 on Thursday 12th October 2017, when we welcome prospective students and parents to have a look at what makes Sponne such an amazing school. Our New Intake Evening is always incredibly popular as we welcome students from further afield too and therefore some families will embark on a tour of the school, when they arrive, followed by a talk from Mr Massey whilst some families begin with a talk from Mr Massey followed by tours of the school.

Once students have received their offers, the head of year, SENCO and Assistant Head for Transition will visit students in their primary schools to welcome them to Sponne School. These transition visits are extremely worthwhile as we begin to get to know your children and they become more familiar with staff they will have regular contact with at Sponne School. Students also begin to understand some of Sponne’s daily routines and some even get to wear the Sponne tie!

Our primary visits are followed by the Uniform and Admin Evenings. These evenings allow students to try on different pieces of uniform before parents place the order online. We also make students’ thumbs magic so that they can use our cashless catering system. Although we put aside a few hours for this evening, that is to allow as many of our families through as possible. We aim to make this evening as quick and pain free as possible!

Students get to meet their form tutor and fellow tutees at our New Intake Information Evening on Wednesday 4th July. This is always an exciting evening as the reality of being a Sponne student draws nearer.

Students are already familiar with Sponne by the time the official Induction days on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th July. On these two days students will sample a number of different lessons in the from groups they will spend their next five years at Sponne in. They become familiar with geography of the building and meet lots of different members of staff; including spending lots of time with their new form tutor. At the end of these two days, students leave us exhausted but excited to start. It is a shame they have to leave us!